Following Friday judgement of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, which upheld the decision of the Rivers State High Court that nullified the Congresses that produced Chief Tony Okocha as chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, the legally recognised leadership of the Party declared all the nominations in the just concluded primaries of the party in the state as null and void.
Justice Elfreida Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu of the Court of Appeal, had in a unanimous ruling on Friday, May 29, 2026, upheld the judgement of the High Court of Rivers State that nullified the Congresses that produced Chief Tony Okocha as chairman of the APC in the state.
Accordingly, the reinstated leadership of the APC in Rivers State has declared all the nominations in the just concluded primaries of the party in the state as null and void.
The primaries had produced Kingsley Chinda, a trusted ally of Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as governorship candidate. Other allies of the former governor of Rivers State also emerged as candidates of the APC for the 2027 National Assembly and State Assembly elections.
A statement on Monday, Darlington Nwauju, State Publicity Secretary of the reinstated State Working Committee of the APC led by Emeka Beke, stated that based on the judgement of the Appeal Court, all nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached on behalf of the Rivers State Chapter of the APC between December 20, 2024 and May 29, 2026, have no effect on the party whatsoever.
The Rivers State APC also urged the State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Returns issued to candidates from the Okocha-led faction after the last year local government election in the state and should present the Certificates to the candidates of the legally recognised State leadership of the Party in accordance with the Court of Appeal judgement.
The candidates that were produced by Okocha-led faction are currently running the affairs of the Local Government Councils in the state.
Nwauju said; “Justice Obomanu courageously acted in defense of the dignity of court and the sanctity of the rule of law by stamping disciplinary authority of the court in annulling all Congresses purportedly conducted in Rivers State by Alhaji Ganduje in flagrant disobedience of a valid order of court.
“As it stands today, only a higher court can set aside Justice Obomanu’s order which the Court of Appeal ruling delivered by Justice Elfreda Williams-Dawodu has rightfully sustained.
“For posterity’s sake, there are only two possible scenarios that can play out – (i) the Courts order fresh congresses in Rivers State to mitigate injuries suffered by the plaintiffs to Suit No. PHC/3859/CS/2024; (ii) court sees no injuries in what the APC have done and rejects prayers of plaintiffs.
“Whether the courts choose option A or B above, one thing is constant and that is the fact that the Congresses of Nov 23 2024 and November 30 2024 have been buried!!
“What then are the consequences of the ruling of May 29 2026 to the APC in Rivers State? Our friends laying claim to the leadership of the party were neither elected executives of the party based on Justice Obomanu’s December 20 2024 ruling, nor Caretaker Committee members of the APC based on Justice Aprioku’s August 12 2024 judgement annulling that arrangement and restoring Chief Emeka Beke’s leadership, therefore, they had no right to represent the party in whatever capacity.
“The Rivers State chapter of our party has increasingly become an exclusive political association where founding members such as a former State party Chairman, a former Presidential aspirant and financier of the party, a serving female Senator and serving House of Representatives members including the only APC candidate that won election for us in 2023, can be controversially disqualified from participating in party primaries based on ridiculously frivolous reasons.
“Those bent on destroying the foundation of APC in Rivers State and wearing it a strange baptismal name, are doing so on a daily basis recklessly and lawlessly with a malicious intent to engineer the party into an irredeemable path to ancient Golgotha and avoidable political Hormuz Strait.
“If all of us agree that we should return this matter to the High Court to start afresh, the Congresses have already been dismantled and buried and like APC was told on 12th February 2019 by the Supreme Court of Nigeria for disobeying the order issued by Justice Chiwendu Nworgu of the Rivers State High Court, “you cannot benefit from your stupidity,” he stated.
The Rivers State APC Spokesman further said all nominations, representations, communications, documentations including decisions reached on behalf of the Rivers State Chapter of the party between December 20, 2024 to Friday 29th May 2026, with the seal or imprimatur of members of the Okocha-led executives, their agents, assigns or privies, is to the extent of the subsistence of the orders of Court, illegal, null, void and of no effect.
He also said; “The nominations of candidates made to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) for the August 2025 Local Government Elections on behalf of Rivers APC were made by persons unknown to law and to that extent illegal and all declarations and Certificates of Return (CoR) issued in favour of the All Progressives Congress must be retrieved and deservedly go to the duly nominated chairmen and vice chairmen communicated to RSIEC on August 14 2025 by the Chief Emeka Beke led executives.
“That all primaries conducted for selection of candidates, flagbearers in the name of the APC in Rivers State be immediately reviewed by the National Working Committee to avert a repeat of the Zamfara State APC experience; that all records of activities including primaries/conventions wherein the illegal executives/impersonators participated directly or indirectly in and/or contributed to declarations/returns on behalf of the All Progressives Congress, are to the extent of the illegality of their activities, null and void and must therefore be immediately expunged from the records of the All Progressives Congress in Nigeria,” the Beke-led faction insisted.
